eldervsEndeConfusable pair

Which to use

“elder” and “Ende” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,740
“elder” frequency rank
#198
“Ende” frequency rank
35938
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature elder Ende
Definition ältere Person: Älterer/Ältere Abschluss eines zeitlichen Vorganges

Letter map: elder vs Ende

Shared letters muted; letters that set elder and Ende apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
elder
4 ch
Ende

Pair insight - elder / Ende

elder and Ende are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35938, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

elder is recorded at frequency rank #35,740, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. Ende is at rank #198, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɛndə].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 35938, this pair ranks #1,627,889 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of elder vs Ende

Shared letters: de. Private to "elder": lr. Private to "Ende": n.

"elder" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "Ende" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eldereldder · elderr · eldre · eledr · ellder
  • Endeedne · endde · ened · ennde · nede

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "elder" for "Ende" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "elder" vs "Ende" - which ranks higher?
"Ende" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #198 in our German list, against #35,740 for "elder". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "elder" and "Ende".

  • Full dictionary entry for "elder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ende" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,627,889 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "elder" and "Ende" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "elder vs puzzles". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,627,889 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list